Mental health is a really big topic. It encompasses so much, and it means something a little different to each individual. We all have different needs that must be met in order for us to thrive and reach our highest potential.
Mental health refers to our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Our mental health affects how we think, how we feel, and how we act. It plays a big part in how we manage our daily lives, how we handle stress, how we relate to others and the choices that we make.
Mental health is important throughout our lifetime. From childhood, through adolescence, and well into and through adulthood, our mental health plays a starring role in how we feel, and therefore how we interact with the world around us.
Mental health is not a fixed permanent state. It exists on a spectrum, and it changes constantly. Our circumstances change, our moods change, our priorities change, and our mental health changes right along with those things.
We are constantly acclimating to what is happening around us and inside of us, especially during tumultuous times such as the ones we are experiencing right now.
There is a tendency to place more importance on our mental health during times of difficulty or stress. This is well and necessary of course. We should absolutely pay attention to our mental health when we’re struggling. It’s important to be able to reach out for help and find new ways of coping when we are overwhelmed, or not managing as well as we could be.
However, we should be tending to our mental health during good times as well. We want to keep feeling good, right? And that takes work. This is why self-care is so important, during the good times as well as during times of unusual stress and challenge.